THE RETURNING PARTY'S EXPERIENCES. 495 



thought the bears had ' gone away,' and was not a little surprised 

 when, on turning round a hummock in hot pursuit, he nearly 

 tumbled over the dam, which was standing snarling at him. He 

 immediately loosed the puppies, and sprang from the sledge. 

 No sooner did the puppies find they were free than they made 

 off after the cubs, on the principle, I suppose, of like seeks 

 like ; but just as Olsen was running up to give the bear a taste of 

 his Krag-Jorgensen rifle, he fell head foremost into a drift, and 

 drove his gun so fast into the snow that he spent some time 

 fumbling for it. 



The bear was not so fierce as it appeared to be, for it stood 

 still, snarling, and waited patiently till Olsen had got hold of his 

 gun again ; and when he had aimed and let blaze, it was good 

 enough to receive the bullet and allow itself to be laid low. That 

 it was killed outright I will not say I think it got a shot or two 

 more but it is enough that it remained where it was without 

 moving from the spot. 



Meanwhile the puppies had taken in hand the pretty little 

 cubs ; they were not many weeks old, and their powers of defence 

 consequently not very great. Olsen captured them both, and 

 made an end of one, at any rate ; while the other, I believe, was 

 brought on board alive. After a good deal of trouble the happy 

 sportsman succeeded in hauling his bear on to the sledge, put the 

 cubs on the top of the bear, and drove home in triumph. 



This was the proudest day of Olsen's life, and I doubt not he 

 will keep the memory of it green till the end. He often talked of 

 the event, which always brought him into high good humour, and 

 he invariably ended up by saying : ' I went out a beggar and came 

 back a fine fellow.' 



After Whitsuntide the mate and Peder set to work to remove 

 the blubber from and salt the skins of the bears which had been 

 shot during the autumn and winter. This provided them with 

 work for many days, and a good many barrels were filled with the 

 blubber. Then came the deck's turn ; it had to be scraped and 

 holystoned, for it was in a terrible state from all the meat and 

 blubber which had been lying on it for so long. We rigged out 

 a couple of large spars on the starboard side, and hung the 



